


Innocence

by hrhrionastar



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Episode: s02e14 Bound, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-06
Updated: 2011-11-06
Packaged: 2017-10-25 18:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/273479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrhrionastar/pseuds/hrhrionastar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the legendland Inner Child challenge (RKCZ or other Midlands characters are magically transformed into children 13 or under). At the end of Bound, Zedd breaks the Maternity Spell, but it has a rather unexpected side effect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocence

****Kahlan was not pleased when Richard returned hand in hand with a blonde toddler with wide gray eyes. Their quest to repair the Veil was no place for a young girl.

She was even less pleased when Richard explained blithely, "This is Nicci. When the Maternity Spell broke, she sort of—"

"Reverted to the age at which Kahlan lost her mother!" Zedd finished for him, nodding. "A natural side-effect."

It did not seem to Kahlan that there was anything natural about powerful magic that could turn a grown woman into a five-year-old.

Moreover, the way in which Nicci monopolized Richard's attention was too delicately crafted to be the work of a child—she would pout until Richard hand-fed her dinner, kissed her goodnight, and sang her to sleep, while Kahlan marveled that Richard couldn't see through those meltingly innocent looks.

Every time Kahlan met Nicci's eyes, she was convinced the sorceress was laughing at her.

"Until we find a way to reverse the spell, perhaps we should send her somewhere," Zedd suggested. "Dennee, perhaps—"

"No!" Kahlan was adamant. She would never burden her sister with such a dangerous charge.

"If we're keeping her," Cara commented, for all the world as though Nicci were a stray cat Richard had brought home and she, Cara, were more of a dog person but had decided to humor him, "she's going to need some shoes. And that dress is inappropriate."

Kahlan glanced across the fire: Richard was kneeling beside Nicci and gravely examining a bleeding scratch on her knee.

Nicci's dress had shrunk with her, but it was never designed for walking long distances—it was ragged and torn, and her feet were streaked with blood and dirt.

Kahlan sighed. Cara was right.

The next day Richard and Zedd went shopping in a nearby village, while Kahlan and Cara found a lake and gave Nicci a bath.

Richard had protested that he didn't know what to buy for a little girl, but Kahlan wasn't letting any child for whom she had somehow become partly responsible go around with hair that tangled.

Nicci balked at the water's edge. "No! I don't _want_ to!" she shrieked. "I want _Richard_!"

"Don't we all," Cara said, glancing at Kahlan sardonically. "But Lord Rahl's not here, so you're stuck with us."

Nicci reluctantly allowed herself to be persuaded into the water after Cara threatened to throw her in, rags and all, but she shrieked when Kahlan lathered soap in her hair.

Kahlan forced herself to be gentle. It wasn't little Nicci's fault that when she was older she had held Kahlan's life hostage in order to manipulate Richard. And it certainly wasn't the fault of her hair, which was a beautiful white-gold several shades lighter than Cara's, and quite thick.

"Hold still," Kahlan said sternly.

Nicci squirmed rebelliously.

"Lord Rahl will probably bring you back some treat," Cara commented, "and if you're good, Kahlan and I will let you have it."

After that Nicci did stay still, and it didn't take Kahlan long to finish washing the child's hair and scrubbing the dirt off her skin.

When she was finished, she sat on the bank of the stream with her feet in the cool water, lazily watching Cara braid Nicci's hair.

The scene was surprisingly peaceful…

So it made sense when a horde of Sisters of the Dark appeared out of nowhere and attacked.

Kahlan sprang up, her bare feet slippery on the grass—she saw Cara reverse a dacra aimed for Nicci—

Fury warmed her blood before she could remember Nicci's crimes—she was just a child, how _dare_ they?

Kahlan reached for the throat of one of her assailants, her power ready at her fingertips—

There was a crackle of lightning. Kahlan pulled her hand back just in time as the Sister of the Dark screamed loud enough to wake the dead—

  
Her power swirling uneasily back into its accustomed channels, Kahlan looked around.

It wasn't only the Sister of the Dark she'd been about to Confess—all of them, or all of them who had still been upright, were now smoldering corpses.

Cara was straightening up from a fighting crouch; just behind her, Nicci was staring at her own hand as though she'd never seen it before.

 _Of course_ , Kahlan thought. She should have known better than to expect innocence from a child Sister of the Dark—she might be smaller and cuter and slightly more biddable, but that was no reason she couldn't still be a killer.

Nicci burst into tears.

Cara stopped looking wary and rolled her eyes.

But Kahlan stepped around the carnage and pulled the trembling little girl into her arms, her heart melting against her will.

"Shh, it's okay," she soothed. "They're gone now. You're safe with us."


End file.
